Earlier this year, Dodge's only NASCAR team, Penske Racing, made a shock announcement that they would be defecting and replacing their cars with Fords for 2013.

That left Dodge in a bit of a tight spot to scramble and find a new team. It didn't happen and Dodge will be done with NASCAR at the end of 2012. That stinks, especially since they had completely developed a brand new 2013 car.

What also about it is that Dodge was the only manufacturer running a Sprint Cup race car that had the body of a V8 powered, rear-wheel drive street car, not a front-wheel drive economy sedan. But instead of lamenting Dodge's loss, let's look to the future.

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Who should step up and enter NASCAR in the future?

Volkswagen has designs on being the largest automaker in the world, and is there a better role model to follow than Toyota? The beigest of all beige cars, the Camry, is running in NASCAR. With the new Jetta and Passat, VW has cut costs and made styling more generic in order to make the cars compete directly with Toyota on the roads.

Why not go up against them on the track too? It's not like VW is hurting for cash...

But what do you think? Who is best to hit the ovals across the country and compete in NASCAR?